This article is from page 14 of the 2013-07-02 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
A NIGERIAN born business graduate intends to throw his hat into the ring for the 2014 local elections. George Atijohn says he wants to run as a candidate in the Ennis electoral area.
The married father of two wants to get involved in local politics in order to “improve the town of Ennis”. He has lived in the town for almost 13 years. If successful, Mr Atijohn said he would represent all the people of Ennis.
He said, “I’m not going to represent one particular community. I want to represent all the people of Ennis.”
The 47 year-old says he would like to get the opportunity to tackle issues such as unemployment and the shortage of local authority housing.
“Look at the problem with unemployment in Ennis. Unemployment doesn’t know any colour. We have nearly 1, 500 waiting on the housing list. These are things we need to tackle head on.”
“How do we create jobs? That is my interest. How do we get ourselves out of the economic mess that we are in?”
Mr Atijohn comes from farming background and previously ran an information technology business in the Lifford area of Ennis. He recently graduated from the University of Limerick with a Masters in Business Management. He says he can’t wait to hit the campaign trail.
“If I could start tomorrow, I would. I would love an opportunity to have a debate with other candidates. You know the way they do American debates? We should do them. It would be fun. Invite the people from the town in and let them assess the candidates.”
He added, “I’m not just talking the talk. I’m going to walk the walk. Let us come together and see how best we can improve the town.”
If successful, Mr Atijohn would be following in the footsteps of Taiwo Matthew who won a seat on Ennis Town Council in 2004. The Nigerian born doctor made history when he became the first immigrant to be elected to a local authority in Ireland.